Torah! Torah! Torah!
Nehemiah 8:1-10
January 25, 2004

This past Sunday, right after worship, I left for a 48 hour retreat down in South Carolina.  One of the three other clergy who participated was a fellow by the name of Denley Caughman.  Denley served for years as the pastor at Garden City Baptist Church right next door to Myrtle Beach.  He is now a consultant for congregational development in the Southern Baptist Convention.  What a sweet man of God!  I was so blessed to be in his presence and soak up the holiness that flowed from this brother in Christ.  As the four of us met for morning and evening prayer for two days Denley expressed his deep love for the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament..  He’s the kind of person who, when they fall in love with someone or something, is so winsome that you fall in love with it too.  As we prayed together, read the scriptures and spent time fellowshipping with one another I found a great hunger for the Torah begin to take root in my heart.  I truly mean that it is indeed a hunger – the spiritual equivalent of having your belly growl and mouth water in anticipation of a much-anticipated meal.  I believe that one of the things that God wanted to accomplish in Ben Sharpe on that retreat was to put me in contact with Denley Caughman so that God could stir up in me a passion for a portion of his Word that I have neglected in my study, teaching and preaching.

Then, lo and behold, the first reading from the lectionary this Sunday is the Nehemiah passage in which God reconstitutes his people after the exile by gathering them around the Law of God.  You see, what Ezra is reading here is the Law, the Torah, the Books of Moses.

Many Christians give these books short shrift in their study of the Word.  But they are an essential part of our formation as followers of Jesus Christ.  Saint Augustine declared: In the Old Testament the new lies hidden, in the New Testament the old is laid open. 

The Torah is also called the Law, the Pentateuch, or the Books of Moses.  It consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 

To begin with the Law contains very little law!  There are indeed statutes and regulations, but most of the Torah recounts God’s dealing with humanity and how God establishes and calls out a covenant people for himself.  The word Torah doesn’t so much mean law in the sense of legal statutes, but rather God’s authoritative instruction that says, “This is the way to live your life.”

And so, beginning with this passage from Nehemiah as way of introduction, I want to begin to lead us over the next weeks and months into an encounter with the core of the Old Testament: the Torah.

I.  The reading from Nehemiah shows the centrality of the Torah for the people of God.  Nehemiah has just finished physically restoring the community following the Exile by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  Now, on October 8, 445 B.C. Ezra, the scribe and priest, sets about restoring the spiritual integrity of the once scattered community by reading and teaching the Torah.  I want to make three quick points of connection and application right at the beginning:

A.    The community is GATHERED by God’s Word. 

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, 8:1all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. Nehemiah 7:73b-8:1 (NIV)

We too are gathered by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. 

B.    Hearing the Law of God read and taught the people respond in WORSHIP and ADORATION of God.  They shout AMEN, AMEN, because they acknowledge that what they heard is the Truth.

Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 7:6 (NIV)

We too find our thirst for Truth quenched as we encounter the Torah and are driven to respond by offering heartfelt worship.

C.    The Law of God generated a transformation of heart and life. 

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”  Nehemiah 7:10 (NIV)

It begins with weeping in repentance when they saw themselves reflected in the mirror of God’s perfect Law.  Their eyes were opened to their broken-ness and God’s goodness.  That repentance blossomed into joy and renewed strength.  God’s Word still has that power for us today.  The Word of God BREAKS US and HEALS US.

II.  Now the question remains, “Why should we focus on the Torah?  After all as followers of Jesus Christ, we are under GRACE, not LAW.  The Law is no longer important is it?”  We are indeed under grace, but this does not mean that the Law is of no value to us as believers or that we can sideline the Torah.

A.    The Torah is vital because in it we see the beginning of God’s specific self-revelation.  God shows us who he is in the Torah. 

·        The Torah shows us in Genesis that God is the almighty Creator who also is so intimately involved with humanity that he walks with us in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. 

·        The Torah shows us that God is the judge of evil and will punish rebellion and wickedness as he did in the days of Noah. 

·        The Torah shows us that we can trust God because he makes promises and keeps them when through his covenants. 

·        The Torah shows that God desires to reveal his innermost character to this people as he did when he revealed the divine NAME to Moses at the burning bush. 

·        The Torah shows that God redeems and delivers his people as he did when he delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. 

·        The Torah shows that God desires fellowship with his people and establishes the holiness laws so that they could be close to him and in his presence.

This recitation of God’s self-revelation in the Torah could go on and on.  The main point is that the Torah reveals that GOD LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOU TO KNOW HIM AND LOVE HIM AND LIVE WITH HIM.

B.    But doesn’t the New Testament teach “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes”? [Romans 10:4 (NIV)]  Absolutely!  But the point of this verse is found in the word “END”.  In the Greek that word is “TELOS” and it does not mean end in the sense of cessation.  Rather, it means completion, goal, fulfillment.  Jesus doesn’t abolish the law - he fulfills it!  Jesus himself teaches this point:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:17 - Matthew 5:19 (NIV)

C.    Christ affirms the OT Scriptures as pointing to himself.  Speaking to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law he proclaimed:

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me… John 5:39 (NIV).

One of the earliest heresies the Church combated was called Marcionism.  Marcion was false teacher how said that the OT had no place in the Christian’s life.  He claimed that the God of the OT was not the same God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The OT creator God, he maintained, was an evil God full of wrath and vengeance.  The God of the NT was a redeeming, loving heavenly Father.  The Church, based on the Scriptures I just read you and others, declared that this was a false, blasphemous teaching.  On one occasion Marcion accosted the great saint and martyr Polycarp.  Their exchange has been recorded for the ages:  Marcion, said, "Dost thou know me?  Polycarp replied: ""I do know thee, the first-born of Satan."

The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He has revealed himself in the Old Testament and that revelation is still authoritative today.

III.  But doesn’t the Apostle Paul indicate that the Torah is somehow bad for us?  By no means!  What Paul teaches is that the Law is from God and as such is GOOD.  The problem is not with the Torah, it is with US!

A.    Paul maintains that the Torah is GOOD!

·         So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Romans 7:12 (NIV)

·         We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 1 Timothy 1:8 (NIV)

·         What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet. Romans 7:7 (NIV)

B.    The problem is that I cannot keep the Torah.  I cannot be justified or made righteous by the Law because all it does is keep reminding me about how often I fail to live by God’s standards.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. Romans 7:14 (NIV)

C.    The Law cannot save us, but it can lead us to Christ who can!

·         For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:3-4 (NIV)

·        So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ£ that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24

CONCLUSION:  And so we begin a great adventure into the core of the Bible that Jesus knew and loved.  It is the central portion of the Scripture that defined the earliest church: the Torah.  We need to be formed by the Torah as the earliest Christians were, because it is the gateway to appreciating the costly grace God has poured out on us in Jesus Christ.

He who has not felt what sin is in the Old Testament knows little what grace is in the New. He who has not trembled in Moses, and wept in David, and wondered in Isaiah will rejoice little in Matthew, rest little in John. He who has not suffered under the Law will scarcely hear the glad sound of the gospel.    -- R. W. Barbour

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Nehemiah 8:1-10

8:1 all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.

2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

4 Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.

5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

7 The Levites-Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah-instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

10 Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
NIV

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